57 Chevy – starring RIC SALINAS of CULTURE CLASH

April 7 @ 8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

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It’s 1964 and nine-year-old Junior is in crisis: his “Old World” Mexican dad is loading up their 1957 Chevy and moving the whole familia from their beloved, diverse, Eastside neighborhood to the eerily homogeneous San Fernando Valley. This one-man memory play, from multi-Emmy Award-winning writer Cris Franco, hilariously explores the misadventures of the Baby Boomers’ generation of “double immigrants” who first moved from their homelands to the U.S. barrios in search of opportunity — then moved on up into the suburbs in search of color TV and the middle-class American dream!

Following sold-out runs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Denver and San Jose, 57 CHEVY hits the HIGHWAYS for two nights only.

Produced & Performed by Ricardo Salinas; Co-Created & Written by Cris Franco; Co-Created & Directed by Valerie Haruko Dunlap

“Ric Salinas is magnetic as he rides to the American dream in 57 CHEVY” LA Weekly

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RICARDO SALINAS – Producer & Performer

El Salvador-born, “Ric” is a co-founder of the acclaimed performance troupe, Culture Clash. As a theater artist/activist, he and his co-creators, Richard Montoya and Herbert Sigüenza, have written and published over a dozen plays and performed 5,000+ shows nationwide. The trio made TV history twice by being the first Latino comedy group to have a national sketch show (Fox TV) and having their serio-comedy historical anthology, Bowl of Beings, presented on PBS’s Great Performances. Other credits include Encino Man, Hero, Mi Vida Loca, Larry Crowne, In Living Color and the play Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo. A frequent guest instructor of Theater as Pedagogy courses at UCLA, Ric says, “Despite the play’s light and unassuming narrative, 57 Chevy may be my most political work so far.”

CRIS FRANCO – Co-Creator & Writer

This Mexican Angelino, built a successful entertainment career by combining his bicultural roots to create intelligent humorous works. Mr. Franco recently ended four seasons on the writing staff of Hulu’s Emmy-nominated East Los Highby penning the series finale: The East Los High Movie.Other credits: (FILM) My Family, Selena, Speechless; (TV) Square One TV, Seinfeld, American Family, The Cris Franco Show; (STAGE) Zoot Suit, Latins Anonymous’s The LaLa Awards, Ole for Hollywood! For his work on PBS, Cris received four Southern California Emmy Awards, two Southern California Golden Mike Awards, the Imagen Award, the Golden Eagle Award — and a partridge in a pear tree. Franco’s also sold everything from Wendy’s Burgers to Macintosh computers by appearing in some 50 English and Spanish national TV commercials.

VALERIE HARUKO DUNLAP – Co-Creator & Director

Of proud Japanese-American heritage, Valerie’s academic credits include faculty positions in the Drama departments of San Diego State University and California State University, Northridge. She choreographed for Brooklyn South (CBS Network), provided scoring for the film Beaches and co-wrote the book, music and lyrics for her rollicking, wild west, original musical, The Silver Spittoon Saloon. Ms. Dunlap has worked with Bette Midler and Grammy, Emmy and Tony Awards winner, Marc Shaiman; created the musical teen revue, Our Time, based on the songs of Stephen Sondheim; provided special material for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Sympthonies for Youth series and garnered a Southern California Emmy Award as Musical Director for The Cris Franco Show.